Rulings mentioned by Imām Ibn al-Qayyim concerning men and women intermingling, something that is so common today that even many of the Muslims themselves may find its prohibition strange! And Allāh's refuge is sought.

Shaykh Rabīʿ ibn Hādī al-Madkhalī (حفظه الله) said: “Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim (رحمهما الله) lived in a country ruled by kings, and although the country was deviant in its belief, worship, and laws, they never attacked its rulers with their swords; rather, they fought the Mongols under their country's banner.”

The deputies of Iblīs upon the earth are those who prevent the people from seeking knowledge and attaining comprehension in the religion. These kinds of people are more harmful than the devils amongst the Jinn. They turn the hearts away from the guidance of Allāh and His path.

Greeting non-Muslims at the time of their religious celebrations saying: “Have a jolly day” or “Congratulations on this day” is impermissible. If extending these greetings is not kufr, then at least, it is prohibited. This is worse than congratulating a non-Muslim for consuming alcohol, committing murder, or having unlawful sex; rather, it is like congratulating him for prostrating to the cross, yet many Muslims who have weak faith do so without understanding how repugnant this action really is.

If these four things are not enough to purify and cleanse the servant, he is purified by way of three things in the Barzakh:

1) The people of īmān praying over him and interceding by seeking forgiveness for him. 2) The trials and tribulations of the grave. 3) The charitible actions pledged on his behalf from his Muslim brothers.

If these three things are not enough to purify him, he is purified at the place of standing by way of three things:

1) The fright of resurrection and the severity of the place of standing. 2) The intercession of the intercessors. 3) The forgiveness of Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic.

If these three things are not enough to purify him, then the hellfire will cleanse him and purify him from his evil. He will abide therein according to the severity of his evil and how much he possess. When he becomes pure and good and the evil has departed, he will exit the hellfire and enter paradise.

Ibn al-Qayyim (raḥimahullāh) stated: "So whoever loves that Allāh would reciprocate his bad deeds with goodness, then he should reciprocate the bad treatment that he receives from others with kindness. And whoever knows that sins and bad deeds are innate to mankind, then he would not make a big deal of the bad treatment that he receives from others."1

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّـهِ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ“O you who believe! Let not your wealth or your children divert you from the remembrance of Allāh, and whoever does that then they are the losers”[Sūrah al-Munāfiqūn, 63:9].

This is a warning from the fitnah of the hypocrites who fell into hypocrisy because they failed to remember Allāh.

Questioned about the Khawārij1, some of the Companions said: “They are not hypocrites as the hypocrites hardly remember Allāh.” Therefore, remembering Allāh continuously is a protection from hypocrisy, and only remembering Him occasionally is a sign of hypocrisy.

Allāh does not test the heart by filling it with hypocrisy as He is more honourable than that; rather, the heart is filled with hypocrisy because it has forgotten Allāh’s remembrance.

[1] One of the earliest deviant groups of which the Prophet (ﷺ) said about them:يَخْرُجُونَ مِنَ الدِّينِ كَمَا يَخْرُجُ السَّهْمُ مِنَ الرَّمِيَّةِ ثُمَّ لاَ يَعُودُونَ فِيهِ هُمْ شَرُّ الْخَلْقِ وَالْخَلِيقَةِ“They will pass clean through the religion just as the arrow passes through the prey, and they will never come back to it. They would be the worst among the creation and the creatures.” (Saḥīḥ Muslim 1067 from Abu Dharr)

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: If you want to find out that which rests in one’s heart, then look to the movements of their tongue. Indeed, the tongue indicates that which rests in the heart, whether or not its owner wills.

Ibn al-Qayyim (رحمه الله) said: “Muslims agree that intentionally failing to pray a compulsory prayer is from the greatest of the major sins, and that this sin is worse than murder, adultery, stealing, plundering, and consuming alcohol, and that whoever does this is prone to Allāh’s anger, punishment, and humiliation in both this world and the next.”

In his tremendous work, al-Dāʾ wa-al-Dawāʾ (The Sickness and its Cure), Ibn al-Qayyim brings the chapter: From the Completeness of a Man Is Love for His Wives. He states: 'As for love for one’s wives then there is no blame in loving them, rather it is from his completeness, and Allāh has blessed His worshippers with it (love).'

The point of the discussion and the secret behind it is that the servant does not see his Lord except as One continuously bestowing goodness and he does not see himself except as one who is sinful, excessive or deficient.